A French oil and gas exploration and production company has bought several of BP’s fields around the UK.

Perenco have paid BP $610 million in a move which is thought to help the British giant raise $30 billion toward covering the cost of the Deepwater disaster.

Perenco are known for extending the lives of oil and gas fields in order to extract further reserves.

The company, which has its UK base in Great Yarmouth, is reported to have bought BP’s Wytch Farm, Wareham, Beacon and Kimmeridge oil and gas fields.